Having decided that moving down the path of buying my own boat was my route forward on my river of life, I contacted the Bootsprofis – Dominik and Hendrik – to learn about their methodology and their Ts & Cs. We met at the end of November 2019, signed a contract and went through a day of structured interviews and discussions to learn what kind of boat would be right for me. I learned that bigger is not always better – and much more.
So now I was committed to finding a boat. Having paid for the interviews, having Dominik and Hendrik searching for boats now – I had to move on.
When trying to make up your mind which boat to chose, the result will always be a compromise. There are so many qualities to look at: comfort, performance, number of cabins, … How do you rank them? Which one is most important for you? I came up with a weighting matrix I had learned many years ago. Comparing each property with all the others you finally come up with a ranking order. And so I found – yes, comfort was most important.
Soon Dominik came up with a few yachts which were interesting and I looked at three of them in and around Athens in January 2020. One of them was interesting, but none really convinced me. An Island Packet 45 was a pretty good fit, ready to sail, nice equipment – except for the owner’s cabin. I do understand that a queen-size bed is less than ideal when you want to sleep in a heavy sea – definitely. But also I had learned that if you live on board as I planned to do, then at least 90% of the time is spent at anchor or in marinas; and during those 90% I want to live in comfort. Which meant that comfort under deck was at least as important as equipment and sailing characteristics. A Nauticat 44 seemed interesting, too. It needed lots of refurbishment – it looked its age (about 27 years), but I found that despite the spacious layout I was unable to stand upright in most places with my 191 cm of height. So height under deck became one parameter to look at in my matrix.
But regardless how many parameters – I now was committed to search and find… A question still open was, though, what to do once I would find a boat. I wanted it to be in the Mediterranean. That meant, driving there for a weekend was not really an option. I would need to find more time to make good use. Work part time? Maybe…